Nov 03, 2005

As in ancient times and even up to date, now is the time of the arrival of the dead souls for the Otomi and Mazahua cultures. It’s also the time when the Monarch butterflies arrive and with them the maize crops are harvested. Therefore it is time of prosperity and the Monarchs have arrived on time, as they do each year, faithful to their appointment with the Winter in their forest sanctuaries in the State of Mexico and Michoacan.

Today people rejoice because, with their arrival, the Monarch butterflies bring richness throughout the region. The reason is that tourists from around the country and the entire world will bring with them benefits for all the forests’ owners. That’s why more than 800 people gather at the Llano de Las Papas in Angangueo, Michoacan, to welcome the Monarch travelers who have just arrived from Canada and the United States.

But this time they didn’t arrive alone! They were accompanied through all their journey by the big size butterfly, hailed at by the humans as Papalotzin! Papalotzin!

Yes! The Papalotzin, an ultralight plane dressed as a Monarch Butterfly, today fulfills the dream of a man, “Vico” Gutierrez, and his team. At the precise moment when the Papalotzin lands, I feel shivers down my spine, because the dream now has come true, the Papalotzin has flown with the Monarchs through their journey.

For those of us who conceive nature as our way of life, not only because we feed and breath from her, but also because by taking care of her we can support our families, the arrival of Papalotzin represented a challenge of life for humanity, because in this team of brave men and women who were decided to fight for this, project lied all the hopes to succeed in such a prowess that only nature has accomplished.

This prowess is the Monarch butterfly’s migration, insect whose fragile appearance doesn’t hinder her from showing us, year after year, how to succeed in unimaginable quests and feats and giving us an example of how putting all of our efforts together we will be able to stop the wasting away of our planet, and, why not, even revert it so that our children, their children and so on until eternity, can live in harmony with nature.

The flight of the Monarch was then emulated by "Vico" Gutierrez and his group of “warriors”, admirable representatives of the human race who not only managed to awaken respect for the migration of these butterflies, but also made a mark in the books of history as those who decided to lead and perform a movement for the safekeeping of the environment which will surely allow for a new beginning of the relationship between the human form and its current environment.

But, how did these Papalotzin humans achieve their feat? Well, the secret is that the members of the Papalotzin team are sensitive, sensible, loving and mostly passionate people who, even against the weariness of a journey, managed to awaken all the –also loving- people who offered their homes and food as they do with the Monarchs when they are southbound.

For their achievement, committed and honest, whose sole interest was their love for the Monarch, I thank and dedicate my work to them, hoping that it will be a worthy gift to “Vico”, Tania, Luis, Greg, Andrew and Claudia, who have given me an example of strength and have renewed my motivation to keep fighting for the conservation of the Monarch Butterfly, the forests and most of all the humans that populate this corner of the world.

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Never was proud. Because a proud, you will be in should agree to the occasion stubborn; Because a proud, you will refuse the advice and friendship help, Because a proud, you will lose objective standard.